Generative AI & Journalism: Content, Journalistic Perceptions, and Audience Experiences
Melbourne: RMIT University (2025), 39 pp.
"This report brings together six discrete research and engagement activities over a three-year period (2022-24), drawing on fieldwork in seven countries (Australia, Germany, USA, UK, Norway, Switzerland, and France), and focuses on AI in journalism within three broad domains: AI-generated content in journalism, journalists’ perceptions of and use of AI in journalism, and news audiences’ perceptions of and reactions to this technology being used in journalism [...] These six research activities underscore the risks and opportunities posed and offered, respectively, by AI in journalism while also pointing to best-practice recommendations for the safe, responsible, and ethical use of AI within this industry. This output joins other reports that focus on AI in journalism (including those produced by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, the BBC, the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, and the Centre for Media Transition at UTS) but largely adopts a distinct focus on multi-modal, visual AI and offers a broader scope over multiple domains (production, editing, and audience reception and interpretation). It also complements with qualitative depth, nuance, and richness the breadth of other survey work focused on AI and journalism, particularly in the domain of news audiences.
This report aims to familiarise the reader with a wide array of AI in journalism use cases, provide grounding on the legal and ethical issues that journalists and audiences identify regarding this technology within journalism, and reveal news audiences’ expectations regarding how this technology should or should not be used. The report ends with a series of questions for journalists and news organisations to consider as they work through their experimentation with and guidelines around AI use in journalism." (Executive summary, pages 5-7)
This report aims to familiarise the reader with a wide array of AI in journalism use cases, provide grounding on the legal and ethical issues that journalists and audiences identify regarding this technology within journalism, and reveal news audiences’ expectations regarding how this technology should or should not be used. The report ends with a series of questions for journalists and news organisations to consider as they work through their experimentation with and guidelines around AI use in journalism." (Executive summary, pages 5-7)
"1. AI bias can take many forms.
2. AI tools and the underlying models that power them are almost always frustratingly opaque.
3. The news workers we interviewed were more comfortable with using AI for (predominantly non-photorealistic) illustrations compared to using AI as a replacement of or supplement to camera-based journalism.
4. Both journalists and audience members are concerned about the potential of AI-generated or -edited content to mislead or deceive.
5. Journalists and audience members are also concerned about the effect that generative AI will have on human labour, ability, and on broader social structures.
6. At the time of our interviews, a minority of the outlets whose staff we interviewed had policies in place about generative AI.
7. Both news audiences and journalists thought transparency about when and how AI was used was important.
8. Only a minority of our interviewees were confident they had encountered AI-generated or -edited content in the journalism they consumed.
9. Audience members we interviewed were more comfortable with AI tools or processes being used in journalism when they themselves had firsthand experience with such tools." (Key findings, pages 8-10)
2. AI tools and the underlying models that power them are almost always frustratingly opaque.
3. The news workers we interviewed were more comfortable with using AI for (predominantly non-photorealistic) illustrations compared to using AI as a replacement of or supplement to camera-based journalism.
4. Both journalists and audience members are concerned about the potential of AI-generated or -edited content to mislead or deceive.
5. Journalists and audience members are also concerned about the effect that generative AI will have on human labour, ability, and on broader social structures.
6. At the time of our interviews, a minority of the outlets whose staff we interviewed had policies in place about generative AI.
7. Both news audiences and journalists thought transparency about when and how AI was used was important.
8. Only a minority of our interviewees were confident they had encountered AI-generated or -edited content in the journalism they consumed.
9. Audience members we interviewed were more comfortable with AI tools or processes being used in journalism when they themselves had firsthand experience with such tools." (Key findings, pages 8-10)
AI IN JOURNALISM USE CASES, 11
Behind the scenes -- Creating content -- New delivery methods -- Audience comfort with use cases -- Enriching and brainstorming – Editing -- Creating
LEGAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES
Journalists’ and editors’ perceptions of legal and ethical issues -- Mis/disinformation -- Labor displacement – Copyright -- Detection difficulties -- Algorithmic bias and reputational risk -- Other challenges -- News audiences’ perceptions of legal and ethical issues
EXPECTATIONS REGARDING AI USE, 20
Primary expectations -- Secondary expectations
QUESTIONS FOR JOURNALISTS AND NEWS ORGANISATIONS, 29
METHODOLOGY, 33
AI-generated content -- News workers’ perceptions and use of visual AI in journalism -- A historical-critical review of journalism practice amid AI implementation -- News audiences’ experiences with, perceptions of, and expectations about generative AI and journalism -- Bringing industry together to discuss and workshop AI use, principles, and policies
Behind the scenes -- Creating content -- New delivery methods -- Audience comfort with use cases -- Enriching and brainstorming – Editing -- Creating
LEGAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES
Journalists’ and editors’ perceptions of legal and ethical issues -- Mis/disinformation -- Labor displacement – Copyright -- Detection difficulties -- Algorithmic bias and reputational risk -- Other challenges -- News audiences’ perceptions of legal and ethical issues
EXPECTATIONS REGARDING AI USE, 20
Primary expectations -- Secondary expectations
QUESTIONS FOR JOURNALISTS AND NEWS ORGANISATIONS, 29
METHODOLOGY, 33
AI-generated content -- News workers’ perceptions and use of visual AI in journalism -- A historical-critical review of journalism practice amid AI implementation -- News audiences’ experiences with, perceptions of, and expectations about generative AI and journalism -- Bringing industry together to discuss and workshop AI use, principles, and policies
